Poll: Half of Hispanic Americans Approve of Trump Following ICE Raids

After the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency raided multiple Mississippi food processing plants for hiring illegal alien workers, President Trump’s support among Hispanic voters has remained solid and a record total of black Americans now support him.

Last week, ICE agents conducted the largest workplace raid in more than a decade across seven food processing plants in Mississippi, netting the arrests of 680 illegal aliens. That same day, though, ICE officials said they released about 300 of the illegal workers back into the U.S. on “humanitarian grounds.” More than 200 of the illegal workers had prior criminal records.

The latest Zogby Analytics poll, conducted days after the highly-publicized ICE raids, finds that about 49 percent of Hispanic Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president. Another 51 percent said they disapprove.

Meanwhile, Trump’s support among black Americans has surged. Nearly three-in-ten black Americans now say they support the job Trump is doing as president — the second consecutive poll showing over a quarter of black Americans support Trump. About seven-in-ten black Americans said they disapprove of Trump.

Since the raids, the food processing plants have been forced to hold job fairs in the area, potentially increasing wages and bettering working conditions to attract and compete for American workers rather than relying on an underclass of exploited illegal workers. One potential worker said the processing plant was offering $12 an hour, but he would like to negotiate a salary of $15 an hour.

The country’s importation of 1.5 million illegal and legal immigrants every year is particularly burdensome on working class minorities, newly arrived immigrants, and black Americans.

Every one percent increase in the immigrant composition of American workers’ occupations reduces their weekly wages by about 0.5 percent, researcher Steven Camarotta has found. This means the average native-born American worker today has his weekly wages reduced by perhaps 8.5 percent because of current legal immigration levels — not factoring in the wage depression caused by the roughly 7.5 million illegal aliens currently holding U.S. jobs.

The poll surveyed nearly 900 likely U.S. voters nationwide between August 9 and August 12, with a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percentage points.